17 Feb TRUMP’S DEI ROLLBACK MAKES WAVES; UNSURE ABOT DEI? YOU’RE NOT ALONE
TRUMP’S DEI ROLLBACK MAKES WAVES
It’s been four weeks since U.S. President Donald Trump was inaugurated, and in that time, DEI or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies have gone from boom to bust.
Just weeks into his second term, Trump’s war on DEI has seen a growing number of US businesses including McDonalds, Meta, Target, Accenture, Walt Disney, Amtrak, and Intel halt or roll back their DEI initiatives.
Amongst the outliers are U.S. retail giant Costco, whose shareholders voted almost unanimously in support of DEI, and the U.S. National Football League’s decision to recommit to DEI initiatives.
UNSURE ABOUT DEI? YOU’RE NOT ALONE
Companies both local and global are scrambling to figure out where they stand on the issue, with some choosing to stick to their guns while others rapidly jettison their DEI policies to try and match the changing political mood.
It’s a messaging minefield, and with the Australian elections just around the corner, the political noise is only likely to increase.
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BATTLE OVER HYBRID WORK CONTINUES
JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon made the headlines last week after expletive-laden audio of him dismissing an employee petition for hybrid work was leaked to the media. The audio was the latest volley in the battle between employers and employees to come to some sort of compromise on hybrid or Work From Home policies.
Despite companies such as Commonwealth Bank, Zoom and recently Woolworths making headlines for mandating office-based work, new research suggests that WFH levels have remained surprisingly stable, the Australian Financial Review reports.
Stanford’s Professor Nick Bloom is “genuinely puzzled” at the results of his research, which show that after the pandemic surge, levels of remote work have stayed astonishingly flat since late 2023 at around 26 – 30 per cent.
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